Leading doesn’t arrive as a decision. It arrives as a responsibility.
Anna Kalmár, a social entrepreneur and mental health professional, didn’t wake up one day and decide to start leading. She started a social enterprise because she saw a need and slowly, almost imperceptibly, an organisation began to take shape around her. She is the founder of the Budapest based mental health initiative, AdniJóga.
Volunteers gathered, partners came in, her team started looking to her when things got difficult.
“And that’s when I realised,” she reflects, “this is becoming an organisation, and I am leading it.”
And for her that realisation didn’t bring confidence, it brought hesitation. She couldn’t even say the words out loud: “I am a social entrepreneur.”
Anna joined Julia Middleton on the Women Emerging Podcast to reflect on what it means to step into leading before you feel ready and how learning to combine care with fierceness changed everything for her.
When Leading Happens Before You Feel Legitimate
Anna’s work began in a refugee camp in Greece, where she witnessed how yoga, breath, and stillness could help women process trauma. When she returned to Budapest, she built a yoga-based social enterprise supporting refugees, children in state care, mothers raising children with disabilities, and others facing adversity.
What she couldn’t quite figure immediately was her place within it.
She describes those early months as a form of reluctant leading, wanting the organisation to exist, but struggling to fully authorise herself as the person steering it.
Like many women, Anna felt she needed permission; from the world, and from herself.
Borrowing an Approach to Leading That Wasn’t Hers
When Anna first sought coaching, she thought the solution was to change who she was.
She believed that to be taken seriously, she needed to adopt a more traditionally “masculine” approaches to leading, one she had seen rewarded around her.
But the more she tried to wear those traits, the more misaligned she felt.
“It didn’t fit,” she says. “I didn’t recognise myself.”
What followed wasn’t a complete rejection of those traits but reframing them helped. Instead of transforming herself, Anna began asking a different question: How do I lead as Anna?
While Leading Care Needs Boundaries to Survive
Over time, Anna began to understand that care without boundaries wasn’t kindness, it was fragility.
She speaks about learning to set limits: with volunteers who didn’t show up, with partners whose requests crossed ethical lines, and with herself.
One moment, in particular, reshaped her understanding of leading.
When corporate partners asked to interact directly with vulnerable children her organisation supported, Anna said no.
Not because it was inconvenient, but because it was unethical.
“When I say no,” she explains, “I am saying yes to the safety and well-being of the people we serve.”
That, Julia reflects, is fierceness, the kind rooted in care.
Listen to the full conversation with Anna to hear how leading often begins before we feel ready; why care without fierceness weakens organisations; how saying no becomes an act of protection; and how authorising yourself to stand firm allows you to lead with both compassion and conviction.
About the Author
Kavya Misra is a writer and producer with a background in adfilms and digital content management. Her master’s in English literature forms the foundation for all her creative and corporate projects. In addition to this, Kavya has an extensive background in theatre. She has written and produced plays. She has also performed at festivals like Bharat Rang Mahotsav by National School of Drama and International Theatre Festival of Kerala. Her diverse experience across theatre, media and digital content reflects her passion for storytelling and production.
